Presently a strange rumbling jar filled his ears. A bend in the road to the west hid the track, but the dazed brain of d.y.k.e Darrel took in the situation nevertheless--a train was thundering down upon him.

A minute more and he would be doomed!

He tried to move--to roll from the track. He could not. His limbs seemed paralyzed. Another second and the train would be upon him!

CHAPTER XXV.

SAVED!

Professor Ruggles had not been remiss in his judgment. It was Madge Scarlet who stole his victim from his arms almost in the hour of his devilish triumph. She did not get on the train from the little way station, however. She was on the train when it drew out of the great city by the lake, but the scheming Ruggles knew it not.

She, too, wore a veil, and was otherwise disguised, and managed not to show herself to the man she had once called friend. Immediately on her release from jail she began to watch Ruggles, who kept himself out of the way, or walked the streets only in disguise.

She haunted the depots of the city, and was lucky enough to see him when he took pa.s.sage. Quietly boarding the same train, she bided her time, intent on gaining possession of the detective's sister for purposes of her own.

The fires of insanity were already burning in the brain of the convict's wife.

Revenge for past wrongs seemed the sole object of her life now, and this was the incentive that placed her on the track of a fleeing villain and his intended victim.

Madge saw Ruggles when he left the car. She watched her opportunity, and lifting the partially insensible girl, bore her swiftly to the outside, as the train halted for a minute.

She gave vent to a chuckle as the train went thundering on its course.

She had pa.s.sed from the cars on the opposite side from the depot, and consequently was able to elude the gaze of the depot agent.

Along the track she went, pausing at times to rest, until she was fully a mile from the station. In the shadow of a clump of trees the hag came to a halt and deposited her burden on the ground.

A moan from the drugged and helpless Nell reached her ears.

And then Mrs. Scarlet chuckled the louder.

"Good; she's coming out of her bad spell. I want her to realize her fate, else there wouldn't be the least bit of pleasure in my revenge."

Removing veil and light cloak, Mrs. Scarlet gazed down into the pallid face of poor Nell, with only hatred gleaming from her sunken, beady eyes.

"Ho! I've outwitted the master devil himself, and now I will have you all to myself, to deal with in a way that will cut to the quick when d.y.k.e Darrel hears of it."

Nell had on only a light summer robe under the shawl. She looked very innocent and beautiful as she lay there under the gaze of that human hyena.

"Pretty's a picture," hissed the wicked Madge. "I'll all the more delight in seeing you suffer. Ah! she is coming out of her stupor. How do you feel, dear?"

Nell had opened her eyes and gazed at the wicked face above her, in a dazed semi-consciousness.

No answer was vouchsafed.

Then, in looking about, the gleam of steel lines under the moon's rays seemed to attract the notice of Mrs. Scarlet for the first time--the straight lines that marked the course of the Erie road.

Their glitter seemed to offer a diabolical suggestion to Madge Scarlet.

"Ha! I have it."

Springing to her feet, she laid her arms about the slender form of the helpless girl, and, lifting her, walked swiftly to the railway track.

In the centre, between the rails, she deposited her burden.

"Revenge! sweet revenge!" cackled the hag in a blood-curdling voice.

Again the girl moved and moaned; yet she seemed unable to change her position.

"Rest yourself comfortably, my girl; you won't be in trouble long,"

muttered the demon woman, with a grin that was absolutely sickening.

Poor Nell! She lay quite still after that, between the fatal rails, only giving sign of life by a faint moan occasionally.

Mrs. Scarlet retired to her leafy covert to wait the outcome. She could see far beyond the track a farm-house, and near her a heap of ties, and a rude fence--the moonlight revealed everything plainly.

Chuckling with hideous satisfaction, the she demon waited the coming of the express that could not be far distant. Morning was already brightening the East.

Far away was the sound of a moving train. The sullen, distant roar sent a thrill to the heart of the demon woman, who crouched in the bushes to await the completion of her unhallowed revenge.

The sullen jar seemed to act like a shock of electricity on the nerves of Nell Darrel. She felt a strange and awful numbness. With a mighty effort the girl roused herself to a consciousness of her awful position.

Louder and louder roared the train. It was but a mile distant now, and the road was straight.

Nell raised her head, and resting on her hands gazed down the track where, in the distance, gleamed the light of the locomotive.

"G.o.d help me!" moaned the poor girl. Then she tried to throw herself from the track, but she could not. Her limbs were numb, and refused to obey her will.

A wild laugh rang out on the moonlit air.

Madge Scarlet sprang up and glared through the bushes at her victim with maniacal delight.

"Ha' ha! You cannot escape! Them pretty limbs'll be crushed and torn asunder! the white flesh cut and gashed, and that delicate body made a horrid ma.s.s of blood and mangled fragments! THEN I will present them to you, d.y.k.e Darrel. Ho! ho!"

Her voice was raised to a high pitch now, and even reached the ears of the startled Nell.

No help, no hope!

On thundered the iron monster.

On and on till the eye of the engineer catches sight of something on the track--SOMETHING!

Quickly the engine is reversed and the air brakes come into play.

Too late!

A moan of agonized terror falls from the lips of the half dead girl, and then she sank helplessly to the ground. At the same instant help came from an unexpected source.